


Strangers

by Shadow_Ember



Category: OFF (Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-08
Updated: 2015-01-08
Packaged: 2018-03-06 15:04:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3138647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadow_Ember/pseuds/Shadow_Ember
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zacharie likes to think he and the Batter have their own kind of friendship. However, when the Batter visits his shop in Zone 3, Zacharie begins to realize this is far from the case.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strangers

     Wariness between strangers is normal. After all, neither has any idea of the other’s background. On the great wheel of fate, one could have the good fortune to meet a potential friend, or the adversity to encounter a person with horrific intentions. Really, one could never know who a stranger really was. This made the cautiousness Zacharie treated the Batter with as he perused his shop, perfectly understandable.

     The Batter was silent as ever in his approach to the shop. Well, his make shift shop. Zacharie did not typically do business in Zone 3, and therefore had to display his wares across a spare countertop. Zacharie, in his customary friendliness, called out to the purifier, “Welcome, amigo, how does your mission fare?”

     The Batter drew closer to the counter, eyes focused on the merchandise. Zacharie waited patiently, used to the man’s antics by now. Involuntarily, his eyes drifted to the bat across the other’s shoulder. Black sludge glistened wetly against the light wood.

     It took what felt like ages to Zacharie before the Batter lifted his gaze to acknowledge the merchant. “Slow,” he said without expression.

     Zacharie smirked behind his mask, “And just what has slowed you down? From what I have seen, specters have few moments left in their lives once you confront them.”

     The Batter’s blank face took on an expression of annoyance. His jaw hardened as he spoke, “There are too many burnt.”

     Zacharie nodded. This zone was corrupted, more so than the others. The factory produced massive amounts of sugar, and the Elsen workers were too easily susceptible. In their naivety and innocence, they readily became addicted to its powerful effects, and ruined themselves with it.

     Zacharie eyed the sludge on the Batter’s weapon, and felt pity wash over him. As the Batter selected a bag of Abaddon’s meat, he spoke up, “It is a shame, really, that so many Elsen have fallen claim to the sickness that plagues the burnt.”

     The Batter, who had been busy counting out his credits, snapped his head up to glare at Zacharie. His voice took on a growl, “They are impure! Monsters such as them are only fit to be purified!”

     Zacharie did not so much as flinch during the other’s outburst, but his heart began to race despite his calm façade. The Batter had drawn himself ramrod straight, and his presence became stifling in the shop. Zacharie felt the need to shy away, to place distance between himself and this dangerous man, but he willed himself to stay still. “Why is it so important to you, dear Batter?” Zacharie questioned.

     The Batter’s hand clenched around his bat. “It is my sacred mission!” The man’s eyes glinted dangerously, and Zacharie felt the need to backtrack. The other, consumed by self-righteousness, was barely keeping his anger in check.

     “Of course! And I support you on that amigo,” He could not ignore the irony in his friendly endearment, “Why do you think I give you such wonderful prices on your supplies?”

     Zacharie observed the man, and watched his eyes squint in skepticism. Those eyes that lacked emotion and feeling seemed to be windows into the man’s soul. Zacharie feared this, that a man could be so heartless, so driven to a task that did not seem sacred to anyone with a healthy mental constitution.

     As the purifier thrust his credits at the merchant, he wondered how this could happen to a person, how they could gain such apathy. What had been the man’s childhood? Did he have one at all? Zacharie realized he knew none of this. This man still remained as much a mystery to him as the day they met.

     In their silence, the tension grew palpable, and when Zacharie moved, he tried to ignore the feeling he was being watched. He accepted the credits, and thumbed through them quickly, because he was, after all, a merchant first. When he had been sure he had received the right amount, Zacharie tipped his head politely, “I wish you the best of luck on your mission, dear Batter.”

     The other man was silent as he grabbed his meat. He turned without a word, and did not look back until Zacharie added, “And remember, don’t wear yourself out.”

     The Batter paused upon his words. He looked back, his face searching. He tapped the ground curiously with his bat, and left without another word.

     Zacharie let out a breath he had not realized he was holding. The air seemed strangely thin without the purifier’s suffocating presence. He leaned against the counter, and pondered

     Out of all the people he had encountered in the zones, the Batter was the only one that could incite nervousness in the merchant. Perhaps other than the Queen, but that was understandable.

     Zacharie remembered his first encounter with the purifier. The man had been silent back then as well, and the merchant had let his trusting nature side with the man and his mission. Zacharie liked to think, that in the months that he had known the Batter, he had come to understand him. He supposed it was an odd sort of friendship, since the man did not seem like one to build relationships with people.

     The man’s behavior continued to disprove him wrong on this. Zacharie more often than not was puzzled by his behavior and his motives. Because of this, the man possessed a degree of unpredictability that scared the merchant.

     He never knew what the other was thinking. He never knew if he felt emotion or remorse, and it made him wonder if the man really was benevolent. And Zacharie surmised that if the man possessed so many unknowns, then he did not truly know him.

     Zacharie sighed heavily into his hands. This man was, for a fact, dangerous, and he had no idea if he could trust him at all. So, the merchant decided it was not his place to. After all, Zacharie and the Batter were merely strangers.

**Author's Note:**

> So this has been sitting around on my computer for a while, and I finally got around to posting it instead of editing it for years. Perfectionism is not a good quality for me :/


End file.
